Day 2 Reloaded: Special Encore Version
by DavidB226Morris
Summary: Get ready for the ultimate rush in this special encore performance of my Day 2 rewrite! New Chapters every week.
1. 8:00 AM TO 9:00 AM

Day 2 Reloaded ---- A 24/Alias Crossover

By DavidB226Morris

Summary: Ever wonder how Jack Bauer and Sydney Bristow could work for the CIA in the same city and never cross paths? Well, that's about to change. When a dire threat to the city of Los Angeles is discovered, it will take the combined work of CTU and APO to stop it. Sydney's never had like a day like this.

Rating: PG-13 to R (strong language, possibly graphic violence)

Disclaimer: Jack Bauer, President David Palmer and the rest of the team at CTU belong to Joel Surnow and all the staff at Real Time Productions. Sydney Bristow and the team at APO are the property of J.J. Abrams and the people at Bad Robot. I don't own them and I never will. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.

Explanation: This story may seem a little familiar to you at first, and there's a reason for that. As a lunching point for this work I am going to be retelling the events of the second season of _24_ with the cast of Alias joining the hunt for the nuclear bomb. As the story progresses I intend to be making certain changes to how the day went on based on certain people and associations from _Alias._. In other words, what happens to some of the characters from _24 _on Day 2may be dramatically different then in the real thing.

In addition, there are some other provisos.

This story assumes that the events in Day 1 occurred before Sydney woke up in Argentina and found that two years were missing from her life. It also assumes that a year has passed since then and that we are now into season 4 of Alias. I don't have a specific episode in mind, but no one yet knows about Elena Derevko yet, Vaughn hasn't gotten any hints that his father might be alive, and Sydney and Vaughn have resumed their romantic relationship.

Jack Bristow will be playing almost no role in this story. This you can blame on the author. I just don't know how I could manage to have two characters with the same first name and job without an enormous amount of confusion. Perhaps in a future story, I'll figure a way around this molehill, but I can't find a way now.

Kim Bauer will be playing a far more limited role in this story. (Pauses for applause) This story is going to be complicated enough without Kim getting caught in bear traps and being stalked by cougars.

Kate Warner's role will be much more limited. I'm not sure what role the Warner family is going to be playing in this new story, but the focus is going to be less on them,

Now as to spoilers--- almost everything of Season 1 and a goodly amount of season 2 of _24 _will come up. Season 4 of _Alias _will be in play. There may also be bits from other seasons but you'll have to read to find out (diabolical laughter)

Still there? Then let's start the clock.

Chapter 1

The following takes place between 8:00 A.M. and 9:00 A.M.

_An Undisclosed Location in Seoul, South Korea_

**Midnight**

When you work in intelligence, the only way that you can survive is if you perfect a poker face and wear it every day for the rest of your life. And if you wear that face for long enough--- say, thirty years --- that mask becomes the only face you have.

Therefore, if the casual observer had looked at Jack Bristow as he monitored the 'interrogation' of the prisoner, you might have thought that he was completely indifferent to what was being done to this man. You might think that he wasn't seeing the drills and poisons that they were forcing on his body, that he didn't hear the screams of pain from the tormented man, that he didn't smell the mix of blood, chemicals and urine that was coming from the detainee. And, to a degree, you would have been correct. Jack Bristow wasn't seeing any of this--- he was just observing the 'routine extraction of information from a known hostile', as his colleagues in the CIA would have put it. In occasions like this, the double talk helped make the unpalatable acceptable. It even helped you get past the fact that they already knew most of what this poor man had to say--- they just needed one more important detail that only he could provide.

Sometimes--- particularly in the last few years--- he wondered when he had finally become thick-skinned past the point of no return. .It was an exercise, though--- Jack knew that once you passed a certain point, there was no going back. More often, he wondered if his daughter had reached this point yet. He didn't think she had, but she would probably reach it soon. It might even come sooner than she thought.

Suddenly, he became aware that their captive had shouted out 'All right! All right!" in Korean. He realized that this might be it. Jack walked up to the prisoner, and ignored the scars on his body, the blood under his fingernails, the stench of rot that was coming from him. All of these were irrelevant. What he had to say was not.

"Tell me when." he said in Korean.

The prisoner gasped and spat for several seconds before he managed to speak. He said one word.

"Today."

For the briefest of moments, a wave of cold went through Jack Bristow. Then the part of him that managed to operate even in the midst of crisis kicked in. He took out his cell phone and began to make the call he needed to

"This is Bristow. It's today. Get everybody on the wire--- NSA, Homeland Security, FBI." Pause. "Yes. Get in touch with the Los Angeles director of CTU. And notify Director Chase. They need to enact Directive 6- A1 _now."_

Even as Bristow said all this, all he could think was that after he hung up, everything would be out of his hands. The rest was up to the people on the other side of globe.

_Please let Sydney get through this, _he thought.

Los Angeles

**8:03:46 / 8:03:47/8:03:48**

As Sydney Bristow settled into her jog around the reservoir, she tried to do what she managed to do every other day and put all of her cares and concerns into another place. This was no small feat, considering that she worked for a black ops unit in the CIA, that the man who ran this unit, Arvin Sloane, was the one person in this world that she would hate and distrust until the day she died—or he did, whichever came first. Not to mention that she was in constant conflict with a terrorist organization that seemed to have made it part of their mission to destroy her life, and that the relationship with one of the men that she loved seemed to be endlessly complicated even though the two of them were practically living together.

Of all these issues, it was her relationship with Vaughn that currently caused her the most distress—unlike the other issues, that was the only one she had a level of control over. This was why, even though her relationship with Vaughn had been going smoothly over the past three months, it was one of the things that concerned her more. Even last night, after the two of them had made love, she had lain awake for some time afterward wondering where they were headed.

It was for these reasons that her morning jogs had become important to her. By running five miles each day, she managed to reach a zone where, for awhile at least, she was able to leave her mind completely blank and focus on nothing but the movement of her body and the racing of her heart.

This morning, however, even this was denied her. Her thoughts kept coming back to the real world and current problems—most specifically, something that had happened three days ago.

Her father had left on a trip to South Korea. This in itself was nothing odd. Her father had been making overseas trips since she was a little girl, even if she hadn't known until five years ago that they were for 'the Company'. What was odd was that, unlike most of them over the previous four years, her__father had given her no details as to what this might be about, saying her clearance level wasn't high enough. And since her clearance level was only slightly below his, the situation was worse than usual—and Sydney didn't even think that was possible..

And if the situation was that bad, it meant that he had been brought in on an official investigation, and officially, her father no longer worked for the CIA.

So the only question remaining was, essentially: Now what?

Her cell phone chose that moment to ring. She stopped running, took a few seconds to catch her breath, and pulled it out.

"Bristow." she gasped out.

"This is Sloane."

Almost by instinct, she tightened up. No matter how loyal her boss said he was to this country, no matter how much faith Director Chase said they had in him,__she would never be able to relax around Sloane. "Yes."

There was a pause on the other end. This was odd. Sloane almost never hesitated in his speech no matter what the circumstances. "Sydney, where are you?" he finally said.

She looked around. "I'm half a mile down Sepulveda_**" **_

_**Another **_hesitation. "I've already talked with Agent Vaughn." he said slowly. "He'll be driving by in a few minutes. When he picks you up, you're to come to CTU in Ventura County. Agent Vaughn will know how to get there."

CTU? What the hell was she going there for? As far as the rest of the CIA knew, APO didn't exist. "Sloane, was the hell is going on?" she said.

"Agent Bristow, I understand your concerns. However, I can't go into detail over the phone."

"Why not?" This was supposed to be rhetorical. Sloane answered anyway.

"Because if the wrong people hear this, it could cause a mass panic."

Now she was starting to become alarmed. "Sloane, what the…"

"Sydney, wait for Vaughn. Your questions will be answered soon enough."

With that Sloane hung up.

**8:11:28/8:11:29/8:11:30/ 8:11:31**

When Vaughn showed up he brought a change of clothes and one of Sydney's guns (she never went for a run with her.45) However, he didn't have any answers as to what Sloane had been talking about. That wasn't the only thing troubling Sydney though.

"We're black-ops, and the official word from the Agency is that we do not exist," she__mused. "Why the hell would he tell us to go to the Counter Terrorist Unit?"

Vaughn shook his head. "According to normal Agency protocol, interdepartmental fusion is only done between recognized sections. A unit like ours wouldn't even get an invite to the office Christmas party."

"So what does that mean? That the order came from someone above Director Chase?"

"Maybe." Vaughn considered the idea. "It could also have been done by someone in a different position in the chain of command, like Homeland Security or the NSA."

"And the only reason they'd do that was if there was a possibility of a major threat to national security."

Vaughn nodded. "Like we don't already deal with that sort of thing."

_**S**_ydney mulled this over for a moment. "But that's another question: we're CIA, most of our work is international affairs."

There was a moment of silence as they pondered this. "You don't think this could have anything to do with the trip your father is on?" Vaughn asked.

Sydney pondered this. "Could be. But if it's company business, why wouldn't he tell m… us about it?"

A smile briefly crossed Vaughn's face at Syd's slip. "Maybe its got something to do with this new administration. When Palmer took office he said he wanted to make some major overhauls in how the government does its business."

"And you think he's actually following up on it?" Sydney said with incredulity.

"Stranger things have happened."

"Not much." If that were true, wouldn't Palmer have considered taking Arvin Sloane out and shooting him? Sydney redirected the conversation slightly. "Don't you have any contacts with CTU?"

Michael shook his head. "I worked with them occasionally when I first joined the Agency but even before I became… your handler, most of my work was overseas." He paused. "But you know Dixon worked with them pretty closely while he was head of operations a couple of years back."

The second Syd heard this, she felt like slapping herself on the forehead. Of course Dixon had worked with CTU. His job as operations head over the past three years would have put him in constant contact with domestic operations even when he had been working with her against the Covenant.

"Yeah, he worked with them when there was an attempt on the _**President's **_life a year ago."

Sydney frowned. When she'd erased her memories of the past two years, she had also wiped out any information of current events. "That was when, about a month before I resurfaced?" she asked.

"Yeah." There was another moment of uncomfortable silence. The last year had been a difficult one for both Sydney and Vaughn. Neither of them liked to think of hell that Lauren Reed had put both of them through. Even though their relationship had been mended, Syd had the feeling that it was still pretty brittle. "Look Syd----"

"Vaughn." Syd held up her hand. "This is probably going to be a high pressure day for both of us. I think that we need to agree right now, they we try and put the personal stuff on hold for awhile, okay?"

Vaughn thought for a moment, then nodded. "Probably just as well."

"Why?"

"We're here."

The Los Angeles Counter-Terrorist Unit was a very large facility--- it had to be considering the gravity of the job that was being carried out within its walls. The security was high level even for that of a government agency, with nearly a dozen guards watching the front door alone.

As Vaughn drove up to the gate, Syd had a thought. "Does our identification work with other CIA departments?"

"I have a feeling were going to find out soon enough." Vaughn looked at Sydney. "Ready?"

Sydney pulled on her jacket. "Let's go."

As Vaughn parked the car, Sydney saw a comforting sight--- at least one that assured they would not be walking into the lion's den alone. "Nadia."

Sydney's half-sister walked over from her car to join them. "You have any idea what this is about?" she asked.

Syd shook her head. "Um, your father didn't tell you?" It still galled her to refer to Sloane in terms that weren't derogatory.

"No." Now Nadia was frowning. "He said that it was a matter of dire importance but that he couldn't go into detail over the phone." The three agents began walking over to the front door." He sounded very concerned."

Sydney knew Sloane well enough to take everything he did---- even his interaction with his daughter--- with a grain of salt. "What do you mean?"

"It took him a minute just to say what he did." Nadia looked around. "He seemed worried."

Now Sydney was becoming curious. In all the years she had known Sloane, he always appeared unflappable. For him to sound concerned even for a moment was very out of character. What could have him so concerned? Nerve gas deployed in the subways? The threat of biological weapons? What?

**8:20:33/8:20:34/8:20:35 **

Having cleared the electronic security system, the three agents walked into CTU proper. It was an impressive site, even to people who had seen the interiors of many such buildings.

The structure of the interior was a fusion of glass and steel. There were closed off rooms around, to be sure, but most of the offices were visible to the naked eye. There were also desks outside the offices. And everywhere, or it would seem to the untrained eye, were computers and screens at which data and information seemed to flow at an amazing rate There were at least fifty people sitting at their desks and probably__twice as many walking around. Everyone moved with the efficiency and sense of purpose that you would hope to see from this kind of unit.

The three agents looked for a familiar face and found one. "Marshall!" Sydney called out.

The technical expert was at one of the computer banks working alongside a modestly attractive woman with black hair. "Syd! Hey! You're here!" Marshall rose to his feet. "I mean, of course, you're here, I mean, cause when Mr. Sloane tells us where to be that's where we all have to go…."

The three of them were all used to Marshall nervous ramblings, but they also knew that sometimes you needed to turn him off. "Marshall, where are the others?"

"Oh, right! Paula, could you handle this for a minute? Thanks." Marshall rose to his feet. "Dixon's over there with Mr. Almeida, going over some intel from Homeland Security about chatter over the phones. Mr. Sloane's upstairs with Director Mason. They're, um, having a discussion on protocol."

As if there was__some invisible cue, a man began shouting. "I understand what Raeburn said, and I'll follow through. Now get the hell out of my office!"

Sloane walked out, looking as cool and detached, certainly not out of sorts about whatever had just happened. He began walking down the stairs.

Then another man came out of the office, but for a few seconds Syd was blinking because she thought she was seeing Sloane again. The illusion was quickly dissipated because it was very clear that even though the man had a gray, receding hairline and a ridged forehead, he also had the fringe of a beard and was at least ten years Sloane's junior.

As if realizing what had just happened the other man---- who must have been Mason---- yelled down at the momentary lull that had followed. "Alright people. Get moving! Department heads and Authorized personnel in the conference room in three minutes!" With that Mason walked back into his office.

"So much for camaraderie between sections." Vaughn said, only half in jest.

Syd remained quiet. She had a vague idea what had caused the disagreement and she didn't like what it presaged for their working with CTU. She needed to get a better read on things, though, so she walked over to her old partner who seemed to be chatting amicably enough with an active Latino man.

Dixon saw her coming. "Syd, this is Assistant Director Tony Almeida. I worked with him a couple of years back on that Anthrax scare in Oakland."

Almeida stepped forward. "So you're Sydney Bristow. Marcus's told me a lot of good things about you." He offered his hand.

Sydney only gave Almeida a cursory__handshake. "Dixon, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"From what I can tell, what's going on is some kind of corollary to Executive Order 6A." Off Sydney's blank look, Dixon elaborated: "When David Palmer was elected he said that one of his earliest goals to improve the way that foreign intelligence operates during potential crises was to change how intelligence agencies react. Executive Order 6A gives the President the authority to consolidate intelligence networks under one agencies jurisdiction in case of an elevated threat."

"Like when Homeland Security is raised a level." Dixon nodded. "But what'd the threat?" Sydney asked

Dixon paused. "They're finishing the final verification." There was a longer pause and looked at Almeida as if waiting for him to finish the sentence

But Almeida didn't fill in the blank. He merely turned to Dixon and said: "The briefing's in the conference room." Then he started walking away.

Sydney was a good read of body language and she was pretty sure that both she and Dixon had been told to fuck off. It was pretty clear that the people in power at CTU didn't like the people from APO and Sydney had a pretty good idea as to why.

Rather than focus on that problem she decided to deal with the other, more pressing concern. "Dixon, do you have any idea what this about?" Syd asked her partner.

Dixon hesitated for a bit before answering. "Before I came in, Sloane asked me if my children had someone they could go do in case of trouble." He paused again. "Somewhere outside of Los Angeles."

Suddenly Syd put it together. "Are you saying…"

Dixon nodded. "I think it's the big one. And I think we need to get briefed ASAP."

With that, he headed towards the conference room where several of the other agents had begun to gather. Sydney followed him.

**8:24:09/8:26:10/8:24:11/ 8:24:12**

In the briefing room Syd saw that, with the exception of her father, the entire APO unit was present. She hoped that the presence of Weiss, Dixon and Vaughn--- people with standing in the agency--- would ease the minds of those who didn't trust Arvin Sloane. She doubted it, though.

Sloane filled no one with respect.

"All right." said George Mason. "What you are about to hear has been triple sourced and confirmed by NSA and Homeland Security." He took a deep breath. "There is a nuclear device under terrorist control on American soil."

Even for people who were prepared for this kind of event, it was still a shock for Sydney to hear it.

Not surprisingly, Sloane recovered first, as though he had been expecting it. "Where?"

"Los Angeles." Mason then answered the next obvious question. "The intel indicates it will be detonated some time today."

There was a brief pause as the enormity of what Mason had said sunk in. Almeida recovered first. "How do we know this?"

Mason tapped on a keyboard. An Arab with beard appeared on one of the screens behind him. "This man is Mamoud Raji-Faheen, a terrorist who we believe has been associated with several fundamentalist groups. He has been associated with several acts of terror, the most recent of which was the Valentine's Day bombing on the West Bank."

Sydney found herself nodding. She, like the rest of the agency, had received briefings on this less than six weeks ago.

"Two days ago, we learned that the secondary purpose of this attack was to create the illusion that Faheen had been killed. We didn't learn this until five days ago" Mason tapped another key to show a picture of Faheen and an Asian man. "NSA had the man on the left, Jason Park, under surveillance. It was pure luck that we found Faheen was alive."

A woman on Mason's left with light brown hair in a ponytail took over. "After Park was grabbed we spent two days extracting information from him. Less than half an hour ago, he told us that Faheen has been planning this attack for two years."

"Why wasn't Faheen picked up then?" asked Vaughn.

"The photograph wasn't analyzed until after the two men had separated."

This struck Sydney as more than a little suspicious, but she decided to let it pass for now.

"Who controls Faheen?" asked Dixon.

"A relatively new splinter group called Second Wave." said Mason

"And who backs them?" asked Weiss.

"Officially, they are not recognized by any of the Middle Eastern States." Mason typed on the screen to reveal a map of the region. "Unofficially, half the countries in the territory have some kind of training camps within their borders." He tapped on the screen. "But right now, foreign affairs are the least of our concerns."

"What are our major concerns?" asked Sloane.

Mason fixed him with a look of extreme distaste. "You know, if I have to answer any more questions like that, somebody shoot me. _Our _major concerns are using all of the resources of this government in order to stop this device from being _**used."**_

"Do we have any leads on the domestic front?" Tony asked.

The look of disgust disappeared from Mason's face. "Unfortunately, chatter on the usual frequencies has been non-existent, no known members of Second Wave have been spotted on American soil,_** and **_there are no associates of Faheen anywhere." Mason then grew silent. "We do have one possibility in Los Angeles but its shaky."

"Why?" asked Vaughn

"There's only one person who can do this, and he's avoided any of our attempts to---"

Mason's cell rang. "Yeah?" He was quiet. "He's on his way?" Pause.__"Just get him in here. We'll figure the rest out then." He hung up. "All right people, I need this room clear."

There was a murmur of dismay among the assembled. "But we haven't finished the briefing." someone said.

"Look, I don't know if he's going to go through with this. But if he sees an army of agents gathered around, he's going to think he's being ganged up on and he will bolt. So clear the room." He stood up straight. "And remember, from this moment, we only communicate within this envelope. We do not call friends, we do not call family. We don't have to like it but this is our job. So let's get to it."

It wasn't exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech but most of the agents left without complaining. Sydney was almost at the door when Mason spoke again. "Agent Bristow, Agent Dixon, a moment of your time."

Vaughn exchanged glances with Sydney who shrugged and hung back. Mason appeared to be their superior and you did what your superior wanted.

As soon as the room was empty of everyone except Sydney, Dixon, Mason and the brown-haired female agent, Mason turned to them. "I'll make this quick. The agent in question is Jack Bauer."

The name meant nothing to Sydney but it clearly meant something to Dixon. " Bauer? He's been inactive for more than a year. How the hell can he in any shape to help?"

"NSA says he's the best shot we have at finding this guy. Bristow, there's an observation room next door. Go there and… observe."

"That's it?" said Bristow doubtfully.

"Don't worry. If he says yes, things become a lot more fun."

Dixon turned to her. "Do it, Syd. This will be delicate."

Sydney didn't like this, but right now she decided to go along. As she left, there was only one thing on her mind:

Who was Jack Bauer?

**8:33:26/8:33:27/8:33:28/8:33:29**

Sydney had hoped that she would have gotten some time to talk to Vaughn or Weiss, ask what either of them knew Bauer, and why he had been inactive for a year. She was about to do so, when the man himself walked into CTU. She had never seen him before, but she could tell who he was by the way the atmosphere changed. No one said a word but for a few seconds the hustle and movement of the agents slowed as they saw someone they clearly hadn't expected to see again.

Bauer had blondish-brown hair and a scruff growth of beard--- almost like Vaughn, though Bauer was clearly six or seven years older than him. What was different was the intensity and the__darkness that seemed to come off him__like heat distorting the light around it

Sydney's first impression of Jack Bauer was that of a caged animal. He seemed detached and uninvolved--- he might even think he _was _detached and uninvolved--- but Sydney had the idea that this man could strike out at the slightest provocation.

Right now Bauer was talking with Almeida. Sydney decided to go to the observation room and watch from there. Bauer's personal life was his business. His _professional life was___hers.

Sydney walked into the observation room. A few seconds later Bauer and Almeida entered the office.

George Mason got to his feet. "Jack." he said quietly. "Well, Jack Bauer this is Michelle---"

"What am I doing here?" Bauer cut right to the point.

Mason decided to do the same. "There's a rogue nuclear weapon somewhere in LA. Intel says it's going off today."

Bauer clearly was in the business--- his expression gave nothing away. "How good is your intel?" he asked calmly.

"Very. NSA did the groundwork. They have high probability leads in several regional cells that might be involved."

Bauer took this in. "How close are you to locating a prime suspect?" he asked bluntly.

Mason was just as blunt. "Not close at all. That's what you're__here for."

Bauer paused, nodded--- and then turned and walked out the door.

"Jack, what the hell—" Mason started.

"Let me talk to him." said Almeida, following behind him. After a moment's hesitation, so did Dixon.

As Tony had expected, Jack went right to a phone and began to dial. "Jack…" he began.

Jack held up his hand. "Sweetheart, it's me." Pause. "No it's not about us. They called me back into CTU and gave me some information. I can't tell you what this is about but it is absolutely critical that you and I get out of Los Angeles as soon as possible."

Whatever Kim said it was not pleasant because a few seconds later Jack was saying "No, no damn it." He then redialed the number. "Honey, its me. If you don't want to leave with me, fine but you need to get out of Los Angeles. It's not safe here. So please don't tell anyone but call Aunt Carol. I'm sending someone to pick you up now. Just go there and call me on my cell." He paused. "Sweetheart, please just do this for me." He hung up, picked up his jacket and started towards the door.

"Jack…" said Tony.

"Tony, I don't have time for this."

"Wait a minute." Tony got right in front of him. "The reason you were called in was because it's a background match. You're the only one who can run with this."

Jack hesitated, but only momentarily. "I don't care."

"Jack, we can get to Kim before you can, we can get her out of the city, we can keep her safe! But the best thing that you can do for her right now is help us find that bomb!"

This time Jack didn't even hesitate. "I trusted everybody at CTU to keep Teri safe last year and I lost her! I'm not going to lose my daughter too!"

He tried to get past Tony who continued to block his path. "I know Jack. I was here when it happened."

This gave Jack pause. "Tony, I know you did everything you could. I just--- I can't lose Kim."

Jack was practically at the door. Suddenly another voice spoke. "Jack." The ex-agent paused. "It's Marcus Dixon." This apparently meant something to him because he turned around.

"We met at one of those trauma therapy groups Doctor Hiller held six months ago. You told me about Teri, I told you about Diane, remember?"

Marcus walked up to Jack. "Tony could you give us a minute?" Tony hesitated. "Please." Tony backed away.

"I told you that the worst part of losing my wife was that every morning I had to wake up and face that I lost Diane all over again." Jack was nodding at this. "You asked me how I could keep doing my job. You remember what I said?"

Jack nodded. "Because of your kids."

"Right. They're the only real thing of Diane that I have left, and I couldn't go on if I wasn't doing everything in my power to keep them safe." Dixon paused. :"Now I know that you feel the same way about Kim, and I know you want to keep her safe, and the only way that you can really do that is to help find this bomb."

There was a long hesitation. For a second Dixon thought that Jack was still going to leave. He added one last thing. "I've got people taking my kids out of LA. You go back in, I will make it my personal responsibility that Kim is safe as well."

Jack considered this. Finally he turned around and headed back to the conference room.

Marcus sighed. "God help me, I hope this is the right thing to do."

**8:44:11/8:44:12/8:44:13/8:44:14**

Mason and Tony were in the middle of a serious debate when Bauer returned. "Here's the deal. I want Grove or Wilson to get my daughter and get her a safe distance out of the city."

"Done." said Mason.

"Second, I want to be constantly updated on her status at all times by Tony or Marcus. I'm sorry George, " he said bitterly. "I just__don't trust you."

Having gotten what he needed, George was back to normal. "Well, you're going to have to start, Jack. What's happening today none of us can walk away from. Tony and I'll make sure it's taken care of." He nodded at Tony, who nodded back.

Bauer hesitated, then sat down. "Tell me about the regional cells."

The woman on Mason's right--- Michelle--- handed over a file to Jack. "The most promising one is headed by Joseph Wald."

Jack took the file without comment. Clearly he knew the name.

"Wald's been linked to a terrorist group called Second Wave." He looked at his copy. "That's why it had to be you. You put in time undercover with him."

"I put him in jail, George." Bauer said bluntly.

"Yeah, well he's out pending appeal."

"He's actually on trial for new charges." said Michelle. "If he's convicted, he gets life, no parole."

"How is he linked to the bomb?"

Mason looked at the file. "NSA links him with alleged members of the threat behind the bomb."

"Why not just pick Wald up?" Bauer asked.

"We haven't been able to track him down." admitted Mason. "He's not at any of the addresses in his file."

Bauer thought quickly. "Are there any key witnesses against Wald in his trial?"

Mason clearly was unsure where Jack was going with this. "There's one."

Michelle handed him a second file. "Marshall Goren. Apparently without him, there's no case."

"Good. Bring him in."

Now George was clearly perplexed. "What? Why?"

"You want me to reestablish my cover with Wald, right?

"Yeah."

"To reestablish my cover would normally take at least six weeks. You want me to do it in, what, less than two hours? Where is the FBI holding Goren?"

"Downtown. Right here. In protective custody" said Mason slowly.

"Good. Bring him in. _Now"_

Sydney would later consider the first sign that this was a man used to having his orders followed. Apparently Mason did too, because he pulled out his cell and started dialing.

What the hell was going on?

**8:49:28/8:49:29/8:49:30**

"Syd, what the hell are you doing here?"

Sydney was a little startled. She had been so intent on watching the scene before her unfold that she hadn't seen Vaughn enter the room. "Mason said he wanted me to observe."

"What?"

"Him." she said, gesturing to the conference room, where Bauer was now looking at a computer screen with Michelle.

Vaughn took this in. "So that's the infamous Jack Bauer."

"You know him?"

"Only by reputation. He ran this office a few years back."

"How did he fall from grace?"

Vaughn thought for a second. "About a month before you resurfaced in China, there was an assassination attempt on then Senator Palmer. The men behind the threat were members of Victor Drazen's family."

"The Serbian warlord?"

"The same. They targeted Palmer and Bauer himself because of some connection the two men had to Drazen's assassination. The way I heard it, Bauer practically brought him down single-handedly."

Sydney pointed towards Bauer. "So why's he out of favor?"

Vaughn sighed. "From what I heard, members of the conspiracy attempted to kill Bauer's family as well." He hesitated. "One of them, a colleague of Jack's, killed his wife here at CTU. He's been estranged from the Agency ever since."

For the first time Sydney felt sympathy for the man in the conference _**r**_oom. "And he's the one they want to handle this thing?"

"Bauer was a good agent, Syd. If they brought him, they think he can do the job."

At that point Mason reentered. "Our friends at the FBI weren't too happy with me, Jack. I suggest you get what you need and get moving."

Jack seemed to ignore Mason, choosing to instruct Michelle on how to touch up his cover story.

"Jack, are you planning to let me in on the plan?" Mason said sarcastically.

"I also need you to get in touch with a parole__officer named Rudy Collette. I need you to brief him and work him into my cover."

"Jack." By now Mason's patience was running thin. "Look at you. You look like a bum off the street. You're not talking to me, I just confiscated a witness outside of my authority based on your call, now are you going to tell me what you're doing?

"No." said Bauer bluntly

Mason sighed. "Are you losing it, Jack? Because I don't have the time or resources to clean up your messes today."

"I'm not losing it George." Bauer said patiently

Mason clearly didn't by this but he was prevented from further discussion when two marshals brought a man with handcuffs into the room.

"That must be Goren." Syd said.

Vaughn wanted to interrupt but never got the chance. Bauer asked the agents if they would put Goren in the chair.

"Michelle, would you excuse us?' Jack said gently.

Michelle was clearly a little taken aback. "Don't you want---"

"No."

Michelle looked at Mason, then got up and left. Bauer closed the door, leaving just the three men in the room.

"You are Marshall Goren?" Bauer asked casually.

Goren, an ugly looking man, said,__"Yeah."

"Eight counts, abducting a minor. Two counts, child pornography. First-degree murder." Bauer continued to speak neutrally.

"Hey, I don't need to hear this noise." said Goren cockily. "I already made my deal. All I gotta__do is testify against Wald. And I walk."

In her years at SD-6, the special unit, and now APO Sydney had long since thought that she had lost the capability for being surprised anymore. She kept finding, however, that this was not the case—often in unexpected places.

Which explained why she was startled when Bauer swiftly turned around and shot Goren in the chest. She hadn't even known Bauer was carrying until that moment.

If Sydney was astonished, Mason was stunned. "Goddamnit, Jack, what the hell have you done?'

Bauer, however, had already moved on to other business. "I need a back-up team and a helicopter in fifteen minutes" he said, kneeling over the body.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" Mason shouted.

"You want to find the bomb? This is what it's gonna take!" Bauer said, as he checked for a pulse he knew wasn't going to be there.

"Killing a witness?" Mason couldn't seem to get past this.

"That's the problem with you, George. You want results but you never want to get your hands dirty. If I were you I'd start rolling up your sleeves." Bauer rolled the body over. "I'm gonna need a hacksaw."

Sydney, who could add two and two as well as anybody, got out of the observation room in a hurry. As it turned out, she nearly beat Mason to the hall. She had a second to wonder why nobody was gathering around to ask about the shot--- and then remembered that CIA rooms had soundproof walls.

"Believe me, you don't want to know." Mason said angrily to an unknown subordinate. "Just get the chopper ready.' He spotted Sydney. "Agent Bristow, my office, NOW!!"

_What the hell did I do?_ Sydney thought to herself. She walked to the stairway regardless.

By the time she got there Mason was in his office. "'Bring him in, George.' he mocked himself. " 'We need him to resolve this' My ass!" Seeing Sydney, he turned and managed to regain control. "Agent Bristow, I take it you observed Jack's latest little performance."

"You could say that." she said carefully.

"What do you think of Jack's work? Speak candidly, Christ knows everyone else is."

Sydney didn't hesitate. "The man is a loose cannon and a loose screw. Sending him into the field is like throwing napalm on a forest fire."

"Glad to hear you say that, Agent Bristow. Because you've been elected fire marshal."

Sydney blinked in surprise. "Sir, are you saying---"

"Congratulations, Agent Bristow. Your assignment is to run surveillance on Jack Bauer."

**8:59:57/8:59:58/8:59:59/9:00:00**


	2. 9:00 AM TO 10:00 AM

Chapter 2

**The Following Takes Place between 9:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.**

"You're kidding, right?" Sydney said, unbelieving.

"Yes, Bristow, because a day when a nuclear bomb is about to go off is the perfect time to make jokes." Mason seemed capable of operating on only two levels: mock-serious and sarcastic. "You saw Bauer in there; he's dynamite with a lit fuse. I need someone to make sure he doesn't go off before we get what we need."

Sydney blinked twice. "Leaving aside that it'san unattractive metaphor, how exactly am I going to follow Bauer without being killed myself?"

"When Jack was working his old cover, he hung out with a bunch of questionable women." Mason said seriously.

Bristow arched a brow "So not only is Bauer going to be showing up at a militia headquarters on the day of a major attack--- a building filled with people who want to see the man dead--- he's going to show up with a prostitute on his arm?" Sydney said derogatively. "Who came up with this master plan, Inspector Clouseau?"

"Interesting that you went right to the prostitute angle," Mason shrugged. "I just figured he'd pick you up in a bar." Sydney hadn't known George Mason for an hour and already she was really beginning to hate his wit.

"Why are you giving me this job?" Sydney asked hotly. "You've got to have someone who's more qualified to do this."

"Because right now I need all my people working on stopping this bomb. I need someone----"

"---expendable?" Sydney finished, outraged. In her years of working in intelligence, she had been told she was being used for all sorts of reasons. She couldn't remember if she'd ever been asked to do something because she was nonessential. Bristow didn't mind the undercover work. It was her job. She didn't enjoy the suddenness but she'd dealt with that before. It wasn't even that she needed to work with someone who was half-cocked. There were days she thought that she was going nuts herself. But this was certainly maddening.

"Well, when you put it like that---"said Mason, only half-facetiously.

"I don't work for CTU. You don't have the authority to order me to go to the bathroom!!"

"According to Executive Order 6A, chain of command in a crisis of this magnitude is handed to the director of the agency in charge of the crisis," Mason said calmly. "Thesecond you and all of the people on your team entered CTU, the chain of command stopped at me, notDirector Chase."

Bristow let out a breath. This needed to be over with, and soon. "Okay, how is the communications team going to follow us?"

Mason blinked. "I don't think you understand me. This isn't one of your usual operations—it's just you and Bauer in the field. No backup—you _are_ the backup."

"You're out of your goddamn mind!" Sydney said.

At that moment, the phone on Mason's desk buzzed. He picked up without hesitation. "Mason." He was silent for a moment. "Well, get him in here!" He hung up. "Bauer's finished his sawing a man in half trick. Agent Bristow, in case you missed the meeting, there is a rogue nuclear weapon underterrorist control somewhere in LA. We have no other regional leads. None. The only hope we have of stopping this bomb from going off is an agent who hasn't been in service for over a year and who was maverick on his best day—and that day was the day he lost his wife.Someone needs to make sure that nothing happens to him, and right now you are the person for the job. _Do you get this?"_

And Sydney realized that she had no alternative. There was only one man in the city that could stop this bomb, and they needed to make sure that he stayed alive. Mason could have just said that, but she had the feeling this man only used tact to nail down carpets

Sydney looked at Mason. "Where do Igo?"

"Head down to the garage. Paula will get you set up."

Without any further hesitation, Sydney opened the door.

"Agent Bristow, one last thing."

Sydney looked over her shoulder at him. Mason smiled sadly. "If I'm out of my mind for putting you with Bauer, what are you for working with Arvin Sloane?

**9:04:29/9:04:30/9:04:31**

Michael Vaughn caught Bristow as she came down the stairs from Mason's office. "Hey Syd, what the hell is going on here? Bauer shoots a guy and now he's just gone? What's the game plan---"

She cut him off with fast, clipped words that belied her annoyance.__"Vaughn, I have to go. Right now." Sydney brushed him off and started walking back towards the screen where she had seen Paula working.

As she did, she ran into someone she had put off dealing with as long as possible. "Sydney, what did Mason---"Sloane started.

"Not now." she said trying to brush past him.

"Sydney---"

"I. Have To. Go_."_ She said very slowly and clearly. "Talk it over with Mason. The two of you seem to be getting along swimmingly."

Mason walked by Arvin and Sydney. He didn't pay them any mind as__he walked towards Bauer.

Jack stared at him, bowling bag in hand, already dressed in his undercover 'uniform' for the day. Bauer's demeanor was emotionless--- Mason wondered if that was the look Bauer had given Victor Drazen before he shot him

"What's the hold up?" he demanded.

Mason jerked his thumb behind him"Your back-up's in the middle of getting set up." he said.

There was a slight, irritated twitch in Jack's lip as he leaned towards Mason."George, the only chance that I have of pulling this off is if I go in alone. I don't need some rookie agent stumbling around on me."

"Agent Bristow is hardly a rookie. She's been with the agency for eight years, and almost all her work has been done overseas. There's no way Wald or any of his crew will recognize her."

"I can't go into Wald's house with some new girl on my arm." Jack protested. "They'll kill me before I get in the door!"

"I swear I've just had this conversation." Mason said to himself. "Jack, I'll be blunt. We're out of time, this has to work, and we are not sending you in without any back-up. So get in the chopper, talk with Bristow and find a way to do this."

Mason saw that Jack would have argued but realized that Mason was right. So he growled: "Fine", and walked to the helipad.

George sighed, then turned toward Sloane and his expression turned even grimmer. "Oh, this is going to be fun." Mason muttered to himself.

"Mason, what did you send Agent Bristow out on?"

"Someone needs to baby-sit Bauer. I figured Bristow could handle it. If I'm wrong I should have been sent the memo."

"Seeing as that Sydney Bristow is someone whose welfare concerns me very deeply on a personal level as well as an agent under my command, I believe that I am entitled to some kind of notice about her activities."

Sloane's tone throughout the conversation had been calm as always. Nevertheless Mason fixed him with the same kind of glance he would have given a homeless person talking about the arrival of Armageddon.

"All right, rather thancount the number of things wrong with that sentence, I'm going to clarify some things." Mason said "Starting with your being allowed to participate in an effort of this magnitude at all."

Sloane remained unfazed. "Youheard Raeburn---"

Mason cut him off. "Yes, I did, and it astonishes me that so many high-ranking officials in this government would trust you to run a _bake sale_, much less a black-ops unit on American soil. If it were up to me I have you on the floor next to the other headless horseman Jack left us."__He held up his hand to interrupt Sloane's response. "But since doing so might get me in to more shit with the wrong kind of people, I will use you and your people as I see fit"

"Very well." Sloane said calmly.

"I'm not finished. All you will do is aid and assist. You and your people, like everyone else in this unit, are under our authority. There is a chain of command here, and right now you are fourth in that line. You answer to me and you answer to Tony."

Mason stopped. Sloane reluctantly asked, "Who is directly above me?"

Mason leaned in. "Any other son of a bitch with a pulse." He turned around. "Now get back to work. Understand?"

And with that the director of CTU walked back to his office.

As was the case Sloane's taciturn demeanor gave no sign that he had just received a public dressing-down from a superior. But a close observer would have noticed that his fists had clenched and his eyes had narrowed before he calmly and coolly walked back over to Marshall.

**9:14:17/9:14:18/9:14:19/9:14:20**

The change Jack Bauer had undergone over the last ten minutes was remarkable. It wasn't just cosmetic (he had shaved and put on a brown leather jacket). It was in his attitude--- he no longer seemed like a caged animal; rather like one who was loose and ready to strike.

None of this, however, made him any more pleasant to Sydney--- Jack had only talked to her twice from the time they got in the chopper till they had walked into Atlas Auto Repair. The first had been to ask what kind of cover she was using.

'Laura Whitman." Pressed for time, Sydney had gone with one of the few aliases that she had developed for SD-6 that was still active in America. Laura already had a small record with the California PD; it wouldn't take much work for Wald's crew to find it. As for her appearance, she had changed from the clothes she had come in with to her jogging outfit--- dark pants, shorter skirt, old sunglasses. It didn't scream 'whore', but it did say 'easier'

She was just enough of a felon that Jack Roush might hang with her.

After looking at the sheet Sydney had handed him, Jack had been quiet for the chopper ride into LA. About two miles out, they got out and into a car that had been left for them. As they drove to the hideout, Jack had spoken again: "The guy we're likely to run into is Eddie Grant, Wald's second-in-command. Guy has a high bullshit meter. Fade into the background, and don't do anything unless absolutely necessary."

"Bauer, I've been dealing with people like Grant for a long time." Sydney said heatedly. "I don't need to be reminded how to work him over."

But Jack was already looking straight ahead, his mind on the job. He turned off the engine, got out of the car, and handed Sydney the black leather bag. "Open this at the right time." With that he awkwardly draped his right arm over Sydney's shoulder. Sydney wasn't sure why Jack was so uncomfortable--- then reasoned that this well might be the first time in over a year that he had held a woman. She grabbed his hand and tugged it tightly around her, making sure it looked awkward because she was hanging on him. If Grant was good as seeing through deception, she wanted it to look perfect

"Hey cowboy," Jack said as he and Sydney walked in the door.

The man at the counter looked up--- he seemed to focus more on Sydney then on Jack. "What do you want?" he said tonelessly.

"I'm here to talk to Joe."

The man--- a kid really, less than twenty--- played dumb. "Who?"

"Joe Wald. He and I used to work together."

"Sorry, man. Don't know who you're talking about."

"Look kid, why don't you get Joe on the phone, tell them that Jack's back in town and wants to talk with him?"

"Sure." said a new voice behind him. Jack turned to face the speaker and found that there were four other men with him. "Why don't I call Joe and tell him that Jack Roush is in town? Sure he'd love to see the man that put him in jail."

Jack knew the man who was talking. "Hey, Eddie. Look, I just came to square things up with Joe. You know I didn't put him in jail."

"Yeah, right."

Wald's crew moved fast. One of the men threw a rabbit punch at Jack, knocking him down. Before Sydney could react, two of the other men grabbed her and lugged her to the side. "Hands off, asshole!" Sydney said without thinking.

"Lady, I don't know who you are and I don't give a shit." Grant said, as he stood over Jack. "This is your only warning: get the hell out of here and don't ask what happened to your boyfriend."

This was getting out of hand. Sydney could only see one way out of this before resorting to force. "Before you do anything you'll regret, maybe you should ask about__Marshall Goren!" she said quickly.

That got Grant's attention. "What about him?" he asked.

"You know, so high, grubby faced, had a thing for kids?" Sydney said quickly. "Word is he was going__to put Wald away for life." If now wasn't the time, they were both dead. "Why don't you take a look in the bag

Grant still seemed indifferent. "Why?"

"Call it a present for Joe." Jack said as he slowly rose from the floor "I want to make things right between us."

For a minute it seemed Grant was going to kill them anyway. Then he shrugged. "Frank, look inside the bag."

A guy with a scruff of beard did just that. "Open it." Eddie said calmly

Frank did so, slowly. When he saw what was in it, he reacted about to same way any man would upon seeing a severed head looking at him. He let the bag fall to the floor.

"Insert your own talking head joke here." Sydney said as casually as she could manage.

The hoodlum looked at Jack, then gave a small smile and let Jack go. "And what's the chick got to do with any of this?" he asked.

"She helped me get to Goren." Jack said suddenly

"How?" asked one of the other hoodlums.

Sydney squared her shoulders, thrusting out her chest, ever so slightly"Even the FBI wants to let down its hair occasionally." She said calmly.

For a moment Sydney thought she had gone too far. Then Grant gave a small smile. "What's your name?"

"Laura."

"Well, welcome to the party, Laura." Grant said.

**9:23:10/9:23:11/9:23:12**

"Marcus." Mason said as he walked toward the black man.

"You got something for me, George?" Dixon asked.

"You get your kids out of the city yet?"

Dixon nodded. "Grove picked them up about twenty minutes ago."

"What about Kim?"

"Apparently, she's working as an au pair for a wealthy couple on the Boulevard. Grove should be on his way there now."

Dixon suspected something was up. He__had known George Mason from some exercises when he had been head of operations. Mason was basically the typical bureaucrat who avoided personal discussion like the plague.

"Five minutes ago, I got a call from Chapelle, who got a call from Hammond a few minutes before that. There's been a lot of fecal gravity about APO merging with CTU, and Division's not happy."

"George, in all the years you've worked here, has Division ever been happy about anything?" Dixon asked rhetorically.

Mason gave a humorless smile. "Even so, Chapelle says that there's a shortage of experienced heads, and that they need someone from your unit to go to Division and help with operations there. I figured because you have experience in both worlds, you're the most capable guy for the job."

"Careful, George, you almost said something nice about someone from Sloane's unit," Dixon said sarcastically.

"Look, I admit I'm not happy about this situation at all, but I don't have time to hold anyone's hands, and I shouldn't have to." Mason said. "We're up to our necks in shit. I've got to lead a hunt for a nuclear bomb while working with a known terrorist; I don't care how many times he's been pardoned. Right now I desperately need someone to make my job a little easier, and I'm asking you to do that. Normally I'd send Sloane, just to get him out of the building, but I'd prefer not to rely on him for anything other than fertilizer.

There were a lot of things wrong with Mason's statement, but Dixon knew enough about being in charge to realize that it was basically true. He decided to let it go---- for now, at least. "All right, give me two minutes to get ready."

Mason was about to leave when Dixon spoke. "There isn't a person in my unit who trusts Sloane any more then your people. If__anything, we trust him less, because we know what he's capable of. You'd do well to remember that, George."

Mason looked out at the floor, his gaze fixed on Sloane. "I find that difficult to believe," he said slowly.

Dixon realized he wasn't going to win this argument--- at least not yet. "Have we heard anything from Jack or Sydney?" he asked.

"Not yet." Mason said.

Marshall Flinkmanwould be the first to admit that he reacted very badly to intense situations--- not a great characteristic for someone who worked for the CIA, but one you could get away with if you weren't in the field. However, he had never been involved in a crisis quite like the one he was in right now, and just to make things more fun, he was going to be reporting to a whole new group of people--- people who had not gone out of their way to be friendly. So he dealt with the situation the only way that he could--- by dealing with the work that was in front of him and not the fact that he was probably in the middle of the blast site for a nuclear weapon.

So when the computer in the background went on, he started to become--- well, like Marshall Flinkman. "Hey, does that mean… does that…"

Paula, the one person at CTU who had gone out of her way to be nice to him replied "He's in. They're on-line. They're checking Jack's background."

"Already?" said Michelle Dessler. Michelle had been working to try and get Bauer's----- or his cover Jack Roush, as it was --- recent parole in the national penal system's database. Unfortunately, it still had at least ten more minutes before it was ready for trained eyes to scan. More unfortunately, Bauer didn't _have _ten minutes.

"Are the arrest records from Gainesville ready?" Paula asked Tony. Supposedly Roush had just done five years up in Florida.

"Not yet. I haven't gotten the clearance codes yet." said Tony.

"Well, we need them right now. These guys are looking for it." said Paula.

"They don't waste any time."

And right now they didn't have any to waste. If it didn't get on line in one minute, these people would know something was up. Unless--- "Get the fax to me now." Marshall said.

Paula looked confused. "Marshall---"

"I can make this work for Bauer but I need you to get the data now!" Marshall hadn't known that he had this kind of attitude in him, but it worked: Paula gave him the keyboard.

Using an old insert-operation that he had used to get records from SD-6 agents years ago, Marshall's fingers danced over the keyboard. In less than thirty seconds, he had an arrest record for Jack Roush that would not bear close scrutiny but probably would get him past these people.

"Come on, come on." He said as he pressed the final sequence of buttons.

Though he would never know, at that exact moment Eddie Stark was taking out a.45 magnum and was about to check the clip when at the man at the computer said: "Hold on. I got it." There was a pause as the man looked at the data. "Yeah, it just took a bit longer for it to come up that I thought."

Maintaining the sense of relief he was feeling, Jack said cool as a cucumber "Told you it would check out."

"Hey, considering how quick we found your girlfriend, you can understand that we were a little concerned." Scott was still ogling Sydney. As long as they weren't looking daggers at Jack, she considered it a blessing.

"Well, now that you've checked our backgrounds, maybe now we can talk to your boss and we can get this party started." Sydney said daringly.

Eddie looked at Jack. "You sure she's a girl, cause she's sure got some stones." he said with a laugh

Jack fixed Sydney with a hard stare. "She's got a point, Eddie. I pass the audition?" he asked.

"Let me make a call." Eddie said, and disappeared back into the garage.

**9:31:22/ 9:31:23/9:31:24/9:31:25**

Vaughn was relieved to know that Sydney and Bauer had managed to at least get in the front door with Wald's crew but other things were beginning to unsettle him. So he had walked over to Weiss' station and decided to share his concerns with his best friend.

"Find anything?" he asked.

Weiss shook his head. "There hasn't been any chatter on any of the local cells about this threat."

Vaughn gestured towards Sloane. "Has he presented us with any leads yet?"

"He hasn't said two words to me in the last twenty minutes." Weiss looked towards Mason's office. "I guess Mason's little rant unsettled him more than I thought it would."

"You'd think he have a thicker skin by now."

Weiss gave a small smile. "When was the last time anyone even looked cross-eyed at him? ThoughI'd be lying if I said I felt a little like doing the wave when I heard that tirade." The smile disappeared. "Of course, the fact that CTU is looking at us like we stank of dead fish doesn't make me feel much happier."

"I know what you mean." Vaughn looked up. "I mean, we worked with some of these people before. And whether or not they like it, we're still all on the same side."

"Three years ago, would you like to have said that you were playing on the same side as Arvin Sloane?" Vaughn didn't answer. "I didn't think so."

"Sydney's gone, her father's out of the picture, Dixon's been sent to Division; does it seem to you like were running out of people to talk with?"

"Well, as Sloane would say, we're not here to talk to them; we're here to stop this bomb." Weiss looked at the screen and then back at Vaughn. "I hope that Bauer's having better luck with Wald. Because we're running out of options."

**9:35:02/9:35:03/9:35:04**

Jack Bauer didn't know about how empty the other resources were getting and at this point he wouldn't have cared. Pursuing this lead was his job, and right now it was looking like the chances of success were very remote. No one was being very friendly and most of them were being downright hostile. This becameclear when he tried to open a dialogue with a guy working with some kind of electronic fuse system.

"You're packing it too tight." Jack said as casually as he could manage.

"Who asked your opinion?" the man snapped.

"Whoa, Jack." Eddie had shown up suddenly--- Jack didn't think this was a coincidence. "Trying to make friends?" He put his hand on Jack's shoulder in a gesture that appeared to be friendly but that Jack didn't buy. "Come here."

"Your guy's a moron." Jack said frankly." What did Joe say?"

"Joe's busy. Come back tomorrow."

"Look I just need to talk to him for five minutes."

Eddie gestured towards the technician. "We got this going on. Swing by tomorrow, around four."

Jack didn't like this but he realized it was the only way to play it. "All right, man. See you." He shook hands and walked back to his car.

Sydney looked at Jack, waved and followed behind him.

The second they were outside, Jack speed-dialed CTU.

"Mason."

"It's Jack."

"You get to Wald?"

"No. I'm with his crew. They're shutting me out." He looked around. "George, I think you're gonna have to bring them in."

"Why?"

"They're packing charges. They're definitely involved."

"Look, if we pick them up, are they going to get us to Wald in time?"

Million-dollar question. "I don't know."

"Well, in that case you'd better stick with them until they do. NSA just upgraded their role in the threat. Puts them just a click away from the Second Wave terrorists."

Jack didn't need him to draw a map. "All right. I'll figure something out." He hung up and cursed.

"Let me guess." Sydney said. "We need to get to Wald."

Jack looked at her. An idea was coming to him. "They seemed friendlier to you."

"Of course they did. " Sydney said. "They all want to screw me."

"Can you work with that?" Jack asked.

"I've worked with less." Sydney looked at him. "Stall, keep the car from working something. Give me a few minutes to try and work my magic."

"Mr. Mason., I've got that upload from Division you wanted."

"Thank you, Paula."

George Mason really didn't want to see NSA's read out on the threat because he knew what it was going to say. It was going to be bad, and they hadn't received Jack's latest call. But he was the head of CTU, and the buck stopped here, and all that other bullshit, so---

He typed in his password, and the report was on his screen. It was a long page of text, but his eyes were drawn towards the bottom of the screen, where he new the real bad news was going to be.

_Possibility of Detonation: 89 to 93._

Mason was not by nature an impulsive man. He wasn't anal retentive, but he did toethe party line as much as possible and didn't believe in going out on snipe hunts. And he wasn't a coward either. So when he made his next decision--- a move that could safely be called the worst he ever made--- he never understood what impulse made him do it. All he knew was that he found himself packing his suitcase, taking his glasses and checking his holster. Then he was moving.

Sloane spotted him as he came down the stairs. "George, where the hell are you going?"

"Bakersfield. Following up on a lead. We're shorthanded so I have to cover it myself."

Tony clearly didn't buy this, either. "I thought Peterson was covering Bakersfield."

"NSA pulled him to follow a different lead." George started walking again.

"George, if all you're trying to do is get outside the blast radius---"

Even though there was a grain of truth in that, George was offended. "How dare you say that? Do you have access to my intel?"

"No, but---"

"Then, just do your damn job." He glared at Sloane. "All of you."

And with that he left, without knowing it starting his own death-march.

**9:43:15/9:43:16/9:43:17/9:43:18**

In her years doing undercover work--- whether a double agent or not--- Sydney had occasionally been assigned to play the seductress. Sloane had never told her point blank that she had to sleep with someone in order to gain access--- in his euphemistic way, he had referred to it as 'earning a target's trust'---- and very few of her missions had been long-term enough that she had actually been in a similar position. She could only remember having to actually sleep with a target three times. (Julia Thorne no doubt had to several times, but since she had those two years erased, she tactfully was omitting them.) And she had never had to do it in this compressed a timetable, in this kind of an atmosphere. But she didn't have a choice. They needed to get in with Wald's crew, and they needed to do it now. Fortunately, as Saki had written, improvisation on short notice was one of her strengths.

So Sydney walked back into Atlas' Auto with her sleeves rolled up (figuratively and literally) and with her gun back in Jack's car. She didn't like the idea of going unarmed into a lion's den, but she didn't have much of a choice if she was going to make this work.

Things didn't get off to a good start. "Can I get some help here?" she asked to an empty counter. She needed the place to be empty in order to get his thing to work, but she disliked even temporarily looking like an airhead— even if no one else was around to see it.

She made her way to the back of the garage where Wald's crew was working. One of them was working with something electrical, another was packing something that looked like clay out of a box, and the third guy was working with something at a computer. Sydney would have bet every dollar in her pocket that they were making some kind of bomb. She also knew for damn sure that it had nothing to do with the nuke---- the design was all wrong, and everyone was wearing street clothes. Still, she needed to know more----

"Hey, can a gal get some service here?' she shouted.

None of the crew at work even looked up. Eddie Grant was nowhere in sight either. She did get the attention of the guy--- kid really---- who had been at the counter half an hour ago.

Seeing him look up and smile, se put on her most seductive smile and asked, "Help a lady in distress?"

A strange look came over the kid's face---- it was the look of the fat freshman who can't believe the head cheerleader is talking to him.

"Handle this, Mark," the guy at the computer said.

A look of anxiety came over Mark's face. "Don't you need me to----"

"I said _handle it._" There was just enough menace in the man's voice to make this kid nervous. Clearly, this guy hadn't been with Grant's crew that long

Mark slowly walked with Sydney towards the counter. "Jack can't get the car started, and he's stubborn enough to want to fix it himself," she said with faux good cheer. "So if we want to get out of here, I got to get us a ride. Can I use your phone?"

Disappointment came over Mark's face ---- the head cheerleader just wanted to ask directions. "Uh, sure, just let me get you the phone." Mark slowly reached under the counter ad pulled the phone out.

Sydney looked UP and began to dial a number. "So what's going on back there? They trying to build a better mousetrap?" she asked casually.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it."

The recorded voice was giving the correct time as Sydney looked at Mark. "Not supposed to? What are you, fourteen?"

"Nineteen!" Mark said belligerently. "Look, Scotty recruited me four months ago. He said the people he worked with needed some new blood. Said they were going to take America back." He scowled. "Big talkers! They won't let me _do_anything! All I do is watch the counter!

Had she had more time--- even a few more hours--- she might have tried to turn Mark. He showed every sign of being a willing convert. But she didn't have the time, and it was Jack who needed the in. So with great reluctance, she went on to the next step. "So you haven't seen any action." she remarked nonchalantly. Mark shook his head. "None at all?"

She smiled at that. Mark's guard slipped further.

"In that case," she said with a smile, "how'd you like a lube job?"

Sydney thought Mark was loyal enough that he wouldn't give away details of the plan to her. She was gambling that he was young enough not to turn away sex when it came gift-wrapped.

Mark's answer was to lift the segment of the counter that let Syd on to his side.

God bless hormones.

Sydney had just lowered herself below Mark's waist when Jack decided to reveal his presence.

"You son of a bitch!" he yelled. He then proceeded to grab Mark, and try to yank him over the counter hard enough to dislocate the unfortunate young man's shoulder. Jack didn't even look at Mark before he started yelling at Sydney. "I leave you alone for five minutes; you can't keep your legs closed?! God!"

Sydney was saved from further discussion when Grant reentered. "What the fuck did you do, Jack?" he yelled.

Well, part 1 had worked. Now it was time to see if the rest followed.

**9:52:18/9:52:19/9:52:20**

"Agent Almeida?"

Tony turned around to see the other female agent from APO approaching him cautiously. "What is it, Agent Santos?" he asked stiffly.

"It's going to be close quarters today" Nadia said with a small smile. "Call me Nadia."

Nadia couldn't have been more than twenty-five. _How young are we recruiting?_ he thought wryly. "Do you have something for me, Nadia?"

"Maybe. I've been back-tracing some connections on Second Wave. All of our Intel on them is from the Middle East, right?"

Tony nodded. "That's where some of the money trail leads to."

"You haven't found anything connecting them to Eastern Europe?" Nadia asked.

"Next to nothing. Have you found something that would suggest otherwise?"

"I recognize two names. Tomarik Shareef and Alexander Trepkos. Both of them have links to an organization known as the Covenant as well the various terror cells. Most of the people in this unit know how they operate."

Tony considered this. "How does this help us find the bomb?"

"The Covenant uses a lot of American businesses to funnel through money and information." Nadia said. "It's a long shot, but right now---"

"Anything is better than nothing." Tony went to his desk. "Uplink the data to my server and we'll see if we can accelerate the search."

"Sure."

Before Nadia left, Tony asked: "How long have you been with the Agency?"

"Less than three months. Before that I worked in the Argentinean intelligence."

Tony looked surprised. "So why one earth did you agree to work in a unit headed by a scumwad like Sloane?"

He knew the moment he'd said it, he'd made a huge mistake. He didn't realize how huge until she said; "There are a lot of security reasons, but mostly it's because he's my father. The Intel on the Covenant comes from him. I'll get the data to the server."

Before Tony's mouth could form an apology, she had disappeared in a huff.

After Jack finished "chastising" Sydney, he went back to working under the hood..

Eddie followed close behind. "You haven't changed much, have you Jack?" he said.

"What's your point?' Jack said casually.

"Thanks to your thinking with your zipper, I'm now short a man and I'm on a schedule."

Jack slammed the hood down. "I'm looking for work."

"This isn't a job, Jack, you're gonna do this for nothing."

Now that he had them, Jack realized it was important not to seem eager. "My price is a thousand a day, you know that." he said as he got behind the wheel.

"Well Jack, I'd say you owe me a bit more than that considering what you did to Mark." Eddie crossed his arms. "You do this, I won't tell what happened to Joe. Don't do this, and you'll be too busy looking over your shoulder to find work."

This was as close as an invitation as he was likely to get. He opened the door, looked around nonchalantly and asked: "What's the job?"

Eddie clapped him on the back. "You're gonna love it."

Scott---- the guy who had been working the computer---- looked at Sydney. "If we weren't in such a hurry, I'd make sure spent the next month wearing sunglasses and long-sleeves." he said angrily. "But we have things to do, so it's your lucky day."

"Your compassion is overwhelming." Sydney said harshly.

Scott gave a look that would have made a lesser woman cringe. "Get out here. Forget Jack showed you this place." he scowled. "Or I'll do to you what Jack did to Goren."

Sydney barely heard that last part---- she was trying to get a last look at the van Grant and the other had finished loading. She wanted to have every detail memorized when she got on the phone to Mason in five minutes.

Scott was grabbing her roughly by the wrist before she pulled it away "I can find the door." she said and left without another word.

She hoped that this van led them to Wald, but she was no longer certain it would. Whatever Wald's crew was up to was bad news. She just didn't know for whom.

Jack knew that something bad was coming but he didn't realize the magnitude until the van was in motion and he learned they were heading to West LA."

"What's the job?"

Eddie laughed. "It's a conversion. Today we're turning a government building into a cemetery."

Jack gave a laugh of his own. "What building?" Ice shot through his veins when he got the answer.

"Branch that's been dogging us for years. Counter Terrorist Unit." Eddie chortled. "CTU."

**9:59:57/9:59:58/9:59:59/10:00:00**


	3. 10:00 AM TO 11:00 AM

**Chapter 3**

**The Following takes place between 10:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M.**

There were a lot of ironies about this day that George Mason would never learn about. However, the ones he did learn were grim enough. The first was that he would never follow up on the lead that he had claimed to go out for. He was still a good twenty minutes from Bakersfield when his phone rang.

"George, this is Tony. How far out of the city are you?"

"Why?"

"I just got off the line with Steve Lauler from District."

"About what?"

Tony wasn't thrilled about this either. "LAPD made a possible match with a vehicle on our watch list. He needs somebody to check it out.

"LAPD made a match? Come on.'

"Well, Lauler doesn't trust their judgment either. That's why he wants you there." George was sure Tony deliberately paused before continuing. "Besides, he knows it's on your way to Bakersfield. I know you're going there to follow up on a lead, but Lauler wants this checked out."

George disliked Lauler immensely but also knew better than to mess with a superior's request. And if he did survive the day—nuclear blast or not— he'd still like his job. And if the bomb did go off, he wanted every last report about him to be positive. "What's the address?" he said resignedly.

Sydney knew that tracking Wald's crew was going to be difficult. They were already on high alert for whatever job they were doing, and if she tried to track them by visual surveillance, they would probably kill Bauer. So she'd have to use some of her magic, which meant----

"CTU, Marshall."

"Marshall, it's Sydney."

"Syd, hey, I guess this means that you and Bauer passed your audition with Wald's crew!"

"Yes and no. They bought Bauer; me they're not so crazy about. He and I got separated, and right now he and Wald's crew are off to do some dirty work."

"Um--- does that mean you've found the--- the nuke?"

"Not even close, Marshall. They're up to something hinky. I just don't know what, and unless I can find Bauer, we have no idea what our next move is. That's why I called."

"What do you need?" Marshall's voice had become business-like.

"I don't suppose that you were able to place any kind of tracking device on Bauer?" Sydney asked.

"No. Guy was really touchy. After he got suited up, he insisted on no wires or electronics. I got to tell you, Syd, on a more, um, personal note, Jack Bauer kind of creeps me out a little."

For Marshall to admit something like this was big. Though he had often acted nervous around Sloane and Sydney's father, he managed to usually cover it with his nervous wit. To openly admit his concerns meant he was fundamentally unsettled…She pondered it for a split second. Marshall knew Arvin Sloane, knew his resume as intimately as she did, and knew precisely how evil he was. With Bauer, Marshall knew nothing, and still Jack scared him—so, either Marshall was just better with the devil he knew, or he may have had a better sense of who was the more dangerous.

"We'll worry about that later." Sydney reassured her friend. "Right now, I need to use the satellite system and communications webs to track a vehicle. Gray Ford van, three doors, California plates, license number TZM-64J9. Last seen leaving Atlas's Auto Repair headed west, approximately----" Syd checked her watch "---five minutes ago."

"Got it." Sydney had never been more grateful for Marshall's photographic memory. "How are you going to be tracking Bauer?"

"I'll be using the Ford Escalade we left at the just outside of the garage. Obviously, I can't track Bauer that closely, so I'm going to need the best alternate route available."

"Copy that."

"I don't care what spy cameras you have to look through or traffic laws you have to break, Marshall" Sydney said earnestly "just keep an eye on Bauer. And make sure Mason gets all this."

"Actually, Director Mason's out of the office now. But I'll update Mr. Almeida and Mr.---"

Marshall's voice was suddenly cut-off by a buzz of static. "Marshall, did you get that?" Sydney could hear someone talking but it was barely audible.

Back at CTU, the place was in chaos. "Something's wrong with my phone." Marshall said

"Mine too." said Tony Almeida, hanging up.

"I know." said Paula. "I tried a filter and I can't get rid of it. It may not be our systems.

Tony looked at her. "If the city of Los Angeles is going to be nuked all because of the phone company, I want a nasty letter drafted to AT&T before we go." Almeida sighed "Today of all days…All right. Call the phone company and switch all protocol calls to wireless."

**10:07:15/10:07:16/10:07:17**

Jack Bauer could have told the people at CTU what had happened to their phone. Scotty, who seemed to be the technical guy, was screwing around with one of the power settings a few miles away from the unit.

"Trying to shut off their phone lines?" Jack asked casually.

Scotty, who clearly distrusted him, didn't answer. Eddie did. "Just enough to make them call the phone company. Have them send out a crew." He looked at Jack for a moment. "Why don't you head up the road? Keep an eye out for anybody?"

Jack knew he was on thin ice with these people but he didn't care about this right now, so he said 'No problem" and starting slowly walking back towards the van.

The second he was out of Eddie's line of sight, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed CTU. Unfortunately, it seemed that whatever Sam was doing to the phones was already working; all that he could get when they picked up was a blast of static. "Hello? Is this CTU?" After several seconds of static, he gave up. "Damn it!" he said.

Now he regretted not having gotten Bristow's cell number. It was a rookie mistake, but the truth was he had all but ignored Bristow at the garage. He had resented being put in such a situation, and he had let his resentment get the better of him. But he had no time for recriminations. Knowing every second counted, he dialed the other number that he had been given.

"Northwest Regional." said a female voice.

"I need to speak with the President."

"Who is this?"

"My name is Jack Bauer. Clearance number is 8119A. I need to speak with the President _now._"

"Please hold."

"Don't put---" The link clicked. Precious seconds went by before another voice answered the phone.

"This is Lynn Kresge."

"I need to speak with the President." Jack said urgently.

"The President's with the press corps right now."

Jack would have argued this more but he saw Eddie was starting to move. He moved to the side of the car and talked faster. "Listen carefully. CTU phone lines are down. I need you to get them an urgent message. CTU Los Angeles is going to be blown up within the hour. Wald's group is doing it. It is not the nuke. But you need to evacuate CTU and to alert a bomb squad. There are at least three---"__

"Jack----"

Suddenly Jack saw Eddie walking around the van. He pulled his phone from his ear, hung up and put it in his jacket mere seconds before he saw him.

"We're done." Eddie said simply, and pulled the doors open.

Jack hoped like hell Kresge had gotten enough of the message. He had no idea what struggles were going on at the seat of power.

He had no way of knowing that Eric Raeburn, the head of NSA would intercept Kresge before she could inform the President. No way of knowing that Raeburn would decide that because of his concern that Bauer would be exposed to Wald's crew, thus stopping him from getting to the nuke, that Raeburn would unilaterally decide not to inform President David Palmer.

He had no idea that the lives of everyone at CTU had suddenly been classified by the NSA as acceptable collateral damage.

**10:13:48/10:13:49/10:13:50/10:13:51**

Nadia hadn't been in the women's room that long before she heard the door open. She didn't look up from the sink. "Have they got the phones working yet?" she asked.

"Not for lack of trying." said Michelle. She walked over to the sink "Your tech guy, Marshall? He'sbusy trying to redirect the communications from the FBI server." She smiled. "The second Paula heard that she told Marshall that she might be able to use two of the nearby satellites to get us back the full speed. I only understand every third word they're saying, but they can probably get our phones working soon enough if we gave them enough time and memory." She splashed some water on her face

This did make Nadia smile. "I'm not surprised. Marshall's one of the best techs I've met." she said. "Give him the right material, he could probably figure out that whole cold fusion thing." The smile faded. "Everyone at APO is good at their jobs."

"Look, I realize we haven't exactly welcomed you with open arms--" Michelle began

"It's more than that. At least for me." Nadia paused, and then seemed to ask a random question. "Do you love your parents?"

Michelle blinked. "I'm not sure I follow you."

"I grew up as a ward of the state." Nadia said. "I didn't have the best childhood, I went through a lot of foster care and juvenile homes, and I didn't have a clue as to who my parents were. I thought that they must love me, and that there had to be some reason that they left me behind. When I started working for intelligence out of Buenos Aires, part of me kept hoping against hope that I'd be able to find them and learn why." She swallowed. "You imagine my shock when I find the sister I never I knew I had and I learn that both my mother and my father are both terrorists."

Michelle knew who Sydney Bristow's mother was. She had also overheard Tony's talk with Nadia "Your mother is--"

A bitter smile crossed Nadia's face. "If there's something to heredity, I am really screwed. " Nadia turned to Michelle. "Miss Dessler, I'm not blind." she said. "My father has done some unforgivable things. To this country, to the people in this unit--- to me. But I believe--- I have to believe--- that he has reformed, that he is a changed man. Not only to work with him, but because I need to love my father. I know how maudlin that must sound, and how potentially dangerous, but still---"

"I understand." Michelle walked over and put her hand on her shoulder. "And it's Michelle."

Nadia looked up. "My father is not a nice man, Michelle, but he doesn't want this weapon to be detonated any more than you do. I believe he can help us."

As much as Michelle felt for Nadia's situation, it would take a lot more than a daughter's love to convince her__that Sloane was playing on the level. She did, however, think his daughter could be trusted--, until__there was evidence to the contrary. In this case, that last thought wasn't personal, just a matter of experience (she had read the file on Nina Meyers). "Well, let's go back to work; see if any of those leads have panned out into anything yet."

As Nadia and Michelle left the woman's room, they came out to find that something was going down. Paula had left her station and was walking towards Marshall's desk. Tony was walking around looking steamed.

"What's going on? We find anything?" Michelle asked.

Tony shook his head. "That asshole Raeburn called and said he wants us to copy all our data on the nuclear threat to the NSA server."

Vaughn, from a nearby station, looked up. "They give a reason?"

"They say that it's just precautionary, but they want it done now."

"When is now?" asked Nadia.

"By 11."

"11?" Michelle frowned. "That's a three hour job."

"I know. I told him that." Tony was scowling now. "He told me that I'd better get started."

Marshall came running over to him. "Um, Mr. Almeida, I think that Paula and I can get the phones working if you just let us run the satellites----"

"Marshall, I'm going to need you to drop this for now. I need you and Paula to sort and send data to the NSA server. Everything we have related to the nuke."

Marshall seemed a little put off by this. "Okay, but you do know we'll have to work up a whole new encryption code, and you know that kind of thing could take a couple of hours--"

"Marshall, you have forty minutes." Tony said flatly.

This only slowed Marshall for a couple of seconds. "Okay, it's not like I don't like a challenge, but really that kind of is pressing it a bit. I mean, I can probably do it, but----"

"Marshall, maybe you better get going." Vaughn said gently.

"Okay, um, sure. Thank you." Marshall scurried off.

Tony watched him move away, then glanced to Vaughn. "Doesn't he have a 'slow' setting?"

"By the time this day is over, you'll be glad he doesn't." Vaughn said with a smile. "What the hell is going on here? First, the phones, now NSA wants all the data on the bomb."

"They said it was precautionary." Tony said.

"Then wouldn't they do it for every agency?" Michelle asked.

Tony thought this over. "Call Dixon up at Division. See if something hinky is going on."

When Mason found the address, there was an LAPD cruiser and four men in uniform waiting for him. He got out of his sedan and introduced himself as CTU to the cops.

"Sergeant Ryan, LAPD." The sergeant gestured to a younger officer. "Barber here made a vehicle match from the alert you put out this morning."

George looked at the building. Aside from the fact that it was some kind of storage unit, there wasn't anything remarkable about the place. "Have you checked inside yet?"

"We were about to, but our captain made us stand down until you got here." Mason could sense the resentment in Ryan's voice.

"Relax sergeant. I want to be here even less then you want me to be here." He looked at one of the officer, holding a saw.

Seeing his approval, the officer used his saw to cut through the lock holding the roll-down door closed. It took less than thirty seconds--- apparently whoever was here didn't seem to care much for security.

George took out his gun, nodded and the two officers rolled the door up. A few seconds later, he and Sergeant Ryan ducked under the door.

All that was immediately visible inside the shed were boxes and containers. The place seemed deserted but Mason wasn't convinced it was. He was therefore pissed when one of the younger officers shouted: "Hello?" Mason rolled his eyes as the sergeant gestured that quiet _might_ be desired for this kind of work.

They walked further into the unit, flashlights on because there didn't seem to be any power in this structure. Eventually, they reached something that wasn't boxes stacked on top of each other. "What the hell?" George muttered.

There was some kind of line of doors about twenty feet ahead of them. It looked benign, but there was some kind of greenish glow emanating from it----- never a good sign. He and the officers cautiously approached the doors.

One of the officers gently pulled back on one of them. They approached a glass structure where the glow was coming from. Mason was the first man there, and was therefore the first to see the dead man lying a few feet from the structure. He also saw the sign on the structure--- with a radiation symbol on it.

Suddenly, a man appeared and he was firing an automatic weapon. The officer next to Mason was hit and George hit the ground. The stream of bullets also hit the glass and it shattered, dust streaming out of it. The man came a few more feet before one of the other cops took him out.

"You okay?' Ryan yelled out.

"There's a man down in here." Mason said, starting to get to his feet. Then he saw the sign that said 'DANGER--- RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL.'

And he saw the dust that was not dust blowing around him.

"Get out of the building." When he saw Ryan hesitate, he yelled:** "**_Get out of the building. _Call Hazmat. Get them to set up quarantine. I think we've got a hot zone here!"

He got to feet, and then saw what might have been a container of radioactive residue a few feet away. He pulled out a handkerchief, praying desperately that he hadn't inhaled too much of it.

**10:26:44/10:26:45/10:26:46**

Dixon's hope that things would be easier when he got to Division had dried up when he learned that he was going to be working with Ryan Chapelle. He had worked with the man a couple of times before and found him to be one of the most annoying pricks he had the displeasure of knowing. It wasn't that Chapelle was a bad man; it was that he was the quintessential bureaucrat, more concerned with procedure being followed than positive results.

This had become clear when Chapelle had told Dixon that he was going to be working on evacuation protocols and target readiness. Doing this when they had no idea where the bomb was putting the cart rather substantially before the horse, but when Dixon had pointed this out to Chapelle, he had fixed with an intractable glance and told him to follow protocol or he'd send him home.

As it was, he had no time to follow these particular protocols before receiving a series of calls. The first was from Sydney, who was contacting Dixon because she couldn't raise anyone at CTU. While admitting this was a concern, it wasn't her main problem.

Bauer had infiltrated Wald's crew. Unfortunately, in order to do so Syd had to get out of the picture. She had been attempting to track Bauer by using satellite imagery when she had been cut off. She had Dixon to call someone at LAPD and get access to their traffic cameras. This kind of thing wasn't Division protocol, but Dixon hadn't hesitated to do it.

The second call was from Vaughn, basically telling him the same thing Sydney had five minutes earlier. This had raised a very important question.

"What the hell are you using to contact me?" Dixon asked.

"Sloane's phone." Vaughn said. "And don't think that hasn't knocked the comfort level down a notch. Tony's holding it like it was a small bomb."

"Well, Marshall did design it." Dixon said facetiously. "That might have been an extra setting."

"Good point." Vaughn said. "In any case, we've hit another snag. Raeburn from NSA called and demanded we upload all the data on the bomb onto their server in thirty minutes."

"They give any reason why they want it done that fast?"

"They say it was just to consolidate information, but I've got a feeling they're not telling us something. Can you check with Chapelle and see if we're just being paranoid?" Vaughn asked

"I'll look into it right away. By the way, you've got to reestablish contact with Sydney; she's trying to keep tabs on Bauer."

"I'll handle it."

Unfortunately, Dixon then turned around to see Chapelle walking up to him looking pissed--- an expression that Dixon was pretty sure was one of only three that the Division head had.

"What the hell are you doing wasting Division resources on looking through the LAPD traffic camera?" Chapelle demanded.

Dixon had Arvin Sloane for a boss--- this kind of bluster barely upset him. "I'm using their camera to try and track down where Joseph Wald's crew is heading "he said angrily. "And the only reason I'm wasting our resources is because right now Sydney Bristow can't keep in touch with CTU because their landlines are scrambled. "

"That's their problem." Chapelle snapped.

"If it keeps us from finding the nuke, it's _our _problem." Dixon countered. "You want to piss and moan over this or do want us to get the job done?"

Chapelle was the type who was never wrong, even when he was. His reaction was to change the subject. "Right now, we have a more pressing concern." he told Dixon. "I just got a call from George Mason. That lead we found in Panorama City turned out to have legs__and so far it just kicked the ass of the LAPD."

As it turned out, at that very moment George Mason was in the hot zone, simultaneously disrobing and debriefing.

"Looks like the lead in the city turned out to be the real thing." he said to Tony as he took off his tie. "Some kind of lab where they may have assembled the nuke."

"Based on what?" asked Tony.

"They found radioactive material." Mason took off his jacket.

"What kind of radioactive material?"

Mason removed his shoes. "They're still doing field analysis."

"Was anyone exposed?"

At that moment one of the Hazmat men pointed to his watch. Sighing, he took it off before he spoke again. "They're putting us through Decon now. Purely precautionary."

_Attaboy George. Sound like you're not scared shitless._ He ignored the internal voice and went on. "Look, we got three dead bodies. I'm gonna send you photos and fingerprints on them. See if they show up on our watch list."

He began to take off his pants. One of the Hazmat people told him he'd have to dump his phone. "Look Tony I'm gonna have to get back to you."

"George, we got a call from NSA. They told us to send them all of our case analysis. Now I've got Paula on it now, but I've got a feeling they're keeping us out of the loop on something."

"It's standard procedure for all agencies to consolidate information." George said as he unbuttoned his shirt.

"That's just it. We're the only agency they've asked."

"Sir, the phone." said the man in the radiation suit. George grimaced at this double irritation.

"Look, call Chapelle at Division and see if he can find anything. I gotta go." he said as he threw his shirt in the bag.

"George, are you sure you're okay?" Some concern finally seeped into Tony's voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine." George hung up before Tony could press anymore. He threw his phone in the bag.

"I need all your clothes, sir." said the Hazmat man.

"You're not even gonna buy me dinner?" George managed to joke as he threw his shorts in the bag.

Then he stepped up to get hosed down, hoping that this wouldn't be the equivalent of bandaging a bullet wound.

**10:37:38/10:37:39/10:37:40/10:37:41**

For the purpose of Wald's crew, everything was moving very efficiently. After the phone company had arrived, it had been simple to kill one worker, take the survivor hostage, and use him and his van to infiltrate the CTU parking garage in less than twenty minutes. Five minutes earlier they had left him alone with their hostage, and headed for the CTU elevator. Given what he had seen on the drive over, it would take them fifteen minutes to plant the explosives. That gave him less than ten minutes to go through the map they had left behind, figure out where they would plant the bomb and get word to Mason. (Because Scotty had kept his eyes on Jack since they got in the van, he hadn't even been able to send a text message to CTU. Now, even if the phones worked the signal would never penetrate the concrete__the garage.)

As he looked through the map he realized something that, in its own way, could be just as a big a problem. This wasn't a roughly drawn map; it was a professional level blueprint. Only someone in the Agency could have gotten access to it.

Jack wasn't sure if things could get much worse.

After a protracted delay, Sydney was now on the move again. Dixon had come through for her on satellites and she had been able to track Grant's van further west. At least, she had been until she found the vehicle sitting empty at one of the city's minor communications grid. Clearly they had switched automobiles at least half an hour ago.

Sydney knew that they were planning to bomb somewhere, but Grant and his crew wouldn't have gone to all this trouble just to knock the phone lines out. But the communication grid was a good three minutes away from any major traffic light, and with no idea what kind of car they had switched to or what direction they were headed in, she had no idea where to look. So where exactly did that leave her? More importantly, where did that leave Bauer?

She decided right now, her best option was to report in to Mason or Sloane, depending on who was back in the office.

She took out her cell and began to dial. Three digits in, it hit her. CTU was less than five minutes from here, and half an hour she hadn't been able to get through to them because their communications had been down. _CTU was the target! _ The bomb could go off at any moment!

Without thinking, Sydney hit an autodial on her phone that would connect her with Arvin Sloane's cell. He had a special phone that had he was equipped with a shifting-algorithm descrambler that Marshall had designed. It would work even if every other phone was out of operation.

Unfortunately, she only got his voicemail. "Shit!" Sydney swore. Of course the line was busy. If the communications grid had been tampered with, Sloane now had the only working phone. Everybody and his uncle were going to be using it.

No time to worry about it. "This is Sydney. Eddie Grant and his crew havebeen tampering with the communications grid. They are going to detonate a high-level non-nuclear bomb of CTU. Tell Mason to lockdown the unit now! This may be our only shot at stopping them."

Once Sydney had hung up, she realized that Wald's crew could be coming back here any minute, and she had to make sure Bauer maintained his cover.

She all but leaped back into her car. The second she got out of the sight of the automobile she was going to speed-dial Marshall. Bauer's cover had to be maintained but not at that cost of the lives of everybody in that building. There had to be a way to do it, and Marshall might be their only hope.

**10:44:30/10:44:31/10:44:32**

"Mr. Almeida." Sloane had recovered enough from his dressing-down to do his job, but he seemed to have realized the thinness of the ice he was on.

"What is it, Sloane?"

The man ignored the hostility in Tony's voice. "I believe we may have a lead."

"What's your intel?" he asked briskly.

"While going over the background of the regional cells, we found some billing records that seem to run back to a company called Warner Enterprises. They're an industrial firm centered in LA that has several major weapons contractors as its clientele. Several of the companies do business with three nations that support Second Wave. And there are records of transactions between them and a known hostile named Syed Ali."

"Ali's been on our watch-list for some time," Tony admitted. "You think he's connected to this?"

"I'm not sure, Mr. Almeida. I'd like to send a couple of agents into the field, and it's been made clear to me that I'm just a figurehead, I think you had better give the go-ahead."

"I don't make policy, Sloane. "

"No, of course not, you just carry it out. That's a very nice defense. I'm sure many of my people would use the same excuse."

Tony's mind virtually jammed with the amount of replies to that snide comment. Before he could answer, Sloane said, "I'll send out my people," anf left.

Vaughn heard this last exchange. "He has a way of making you seem wrong, even when you're right." he said.

"Well, you would know." Tony was going to leave on that line.

"Damn it, Tony, you don't have to be like this!" Vaughn said. "The government pays my salary the same as you. We don't want this fucking nuke to go off either!"

"I know that" Tony admitted.

"Then what's with the goddamned chip on your shoulder?"

"You know what the problem is. Four years ago I helped bust the door in on the Alliance! You give the briefing that Sloane is an enemy of this government. Now I can theoretically get my head around the government giving Sloane a pass, Christ knows we do it more often than we should. But you---" Tony shook his head "---how the hell can you work so hard to break a man, and then go into the same office and take orders from him? Explain that!!"

"It's complicated. " Vaughn started.

"Not really." Tony countered. "I know that things are gray a lot of the time on this job, but Sloane--- Sloane is as black and white as it gets."

Tony had no idea how Vaughn would have responded to that, and he never got one because Marshall chose just that moment to run up to them.

"Mr. Sl--- Mr. Alme--- Mr. Sloa----"The poor tech clearly was torn between his old loyalties and the reality of his assignment.

Sloane, of all people, decided to take Marshall off the hook. "What is it, Marshall?" he asked.

"I was going over to Mason's office to help Paula with the new encryption code, um, by the way, is there anyway that NSA could maybe give us another thirty minutes, cause then it will be up, and those people'll off our---"

"Marshall." Sloane said, almost gently.

Instantly Marshall sobered up. "Syd called. She knows where Wald's crew was going." he said.

"Where?" Tony demanded.

"Here" Marshall said. "She thinks that Wald's people screwed around with the phones so that they could access CTU."

Michelle heard this. "The workers from the phone company." She said.

"Are they still in the building?" Vaughn said.

"We have to lock the place down."

The agents got into lockdown positions. Unfortunately for everybody concerned, Eddie Grant and his people had walked out of building a full ninety seconds ago--- just long enough for them to get out the door.

Even more unfortunately, they had done what they had come there to do.

**10:51:40/10:51:41/10:51:42/10:51:43**

"Is there any sign of them?" Weiss asked Tony.

"No" Tony said resignedly. "And we don't have the time to look for them now. We need to order an evacuation of CTU now."

"Shouldn't we even try to find the bomb?"

"There isn't enough time." Tony was angrier about this then the others. "When this is over, I'm going to have Raeburn's ass for this!" He looked to Michelle. "This is why NSA wanted us to download all our information on the nuke. They knew this was coming." Tony spoke with the anger of someone who has learned something too little and too late. "Order the evacuation, right now."

Michelle hit the alarm and started telling people to get out of the building. At that second, the phone rang. "Almeida." He snapped as he picked it up.

"This is Lynn Kresge, Special Assistant to the President. I have an urgent message for CTU."

_Now everybody wants to warn us._ Tony thought to himself. _Where the fuck was they when we needed them?_ "Too little, too late, ma'am," he said, his marine training holding him back from unleashing his full vocabulary on her. "We know."

"Everyonequickly move towards the exit. Leave your valuables behind." Michelle Dessler was saying as people began leaving their desks.

Sloane came up to some of the junior agents who hadn't gotten the message. "There's some kind of bomb in the building. Everyone here needs to leave now."

Sloane sounded about as forceful as he ever did. It was enough to get the APO agents up and moving--- except for one.

"Marshall, we need to go." Sloane said to the tech.

"But I haven't finished helping Paula with the encryption key---" he said.

Sloane pushed Marshall to his feet. "We can't worry about that now." He said as he and Weiss began pushing him out.

"B—but, all the data on the nukes on the computer." Marshall continued to protest even as they reached the exit. "If we don't get the data out----"

And then the world exploded.

Dixon stared at the computer screen where information had been coming from CTU not five minutes earlier. A single message was flashing on the screen.

SERVER NOT RESPONDING

"My God." Dixon said. "They hit it. The bastards hit us."

Almost without thinking, he began to put things in the same suitcase he had unpacked less than an hour ago. This did not escape the notice of Chapelle.

"What do you think you're doing?" he said in a voice that was shaken but still indifferent.

"I've got to get back to CTU. They're going to need all hands on deck."

"We've already sent out a rescue team. We've got people from most of the major disaster relief efforts." Chapelle said. "They'll have it covered, Marcus. What can you do that they can't?"

Dixon looked at Chapelle as if he'd grown an extra head. "My friends are all at CTU, _Ryan. _I want to see if they're still alive!"

"Marcus, with our primary unit hit, we need everybody who's still active working on finding the nuke. We're going to expend all resources trying to get back on track, and right now I need you to coordinate the rescue efforts from here."

Intellectually, Dixon knew this made sense. Emotionally, he was having trouble getting his head around it. "I can do more for CTU from there." he said weakly.

"You're honestly saying you could stay focused if they started pulling your friends corpses out of the rubble?" Chapelle's voice softened a little. "I realize where you're coming from, but I can't lose any more people."

Dixon had forgotten Chapelle could be pretty ruthless himself. Nevertheless, he had a point. So he went back to his station and sat down, feeling like he was trying to stuff his guts back into his chest.

Eddie had gotten the van far enough away from CTU that when the blast came, the explosion was only faintly audible and the tremor mild. Even from a distance, though, you could the smoke spiraling out of the building.

"We did it." Eddie said as he slapped Scotty and the other man on the back. He came over to Jack and punched him in the shoulder.

"Great job, man." Jack managed to sound like he didn't care. Inside, however, he felt as if an explosion had gone off in him.

George Mason didn't know about the blast at CTU. Something as devastating was about to hit him

The Hazmat doctor had finished his examination. "You're clean." he said.

George knew that there was bad news in the tone. "Then why so grim?" he asked.

"The field tests came back. The substance that you inhaled was plutonium. And based on the particle size, the atmosphere dispersion---"

George didn't want to hear it but knew he had to. "Cut to the chase."

"Your radiation level is high." The doctor looked at him. "Definitely lethal."

George managed not to stammer. "How much time do I have?"

"Could be as much as a week." the doctor said. "Or as little as a day."

George managed to remain stoic, even as he realized that he was the first fatality of the nuke.

**10:59:57/10:59:58/10:59:59/11:00:00**


End file.
